Alumni Association to mark CapU’s 50th anniversary with alumni awards

New award categories reflect the new brand

Ana Frazão // Contributor

The 50th anniversary of Capilano University will be marked with a special edition of the Alumni Awards of Excellence. Different from their annual awards, this year will be a once-in-a-half-century-event that will highlight the history of CapU and also the surrounding community. “[It’s] to illuminate the achievements,” explained Alumni Relations Officer, Brittany Barnes. What makes this year special, according to Barnes, is that the awards will also mark the 10th anniversary of the organization.

The Alumni Association hopes that students, faculty, staff, family, friends, alumni and others will engage and nominate the candidates for this year’s alumni awards, which aims to acknowledge the “stories existing in the community, experts and contributors,” according to Barnes. In order to nominate someone, a person must fill out a form in the website and annex supplementary documents.

Going forward with this year’s celebration, the Alumni Association has created five exclusive categories inspired by their values – Luminous, Unified, Enduring, Confident and Creative, with different sets of values and attributes for each category. Also, all nominees must demonstrate a steady attitude of the qualities that brought them to be honoured, including passion and determination for their purpose. The candidates must show their innovation and contributions in their field and personal and professional achievements.

The Luminous category focuses on education. The nominee must show their engagement with teaching both in the classroom and in life beyond the institution, including how they expand the environment of knowledge to other places. Unified is the category that aims to recognize a candidate that has a “solution-focus”, and engage different groups to work together in finding better solutions to problems in the community. Enduring focuses on the history of CapU with local First Nations. In this category, the Alumni Association expects candidate to demonstrate an effort to build and foster relations with the Aboriginal communities and show knowledge of their history and supporting reconciliation in the community. For the Confident category, the Alumni Association is looking for a leader who can inspire others with their attitude. This nominee shows determination to achieve their goals, and in the journey inspire others to act. For the final category, Creative, the organization hopes for a candidate that goes out of their boundaries, someone who embraces innovation and search for new paths to be followed. This candidate demonstrates a way of thinking different from others to solve different matters.

The Alumni Association will announce the recipients at a special stage ceremony at the Pipe Shop Venue, a place in the heart of the North Shore community where those being recognized can be at the centre of attention on Oct. 18.

Barnes also explained the importance this event will hold for future CapU graduates. She hopes that the community will acknowledge CapU as a source of outstanding graduates, demonstrating success of the Alumni Association and students’ bonds with the University after graduation.